Press release in Indonesian

With little more than two months to go, these teams are building their vehicles which are designed to set fuel-efficiency records at Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) Asia to be kicked off in Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, 6-8 July 2011.

The students are just as excited about being part of SEM Asia. Gerry Julian of team Nakoela of University of Indonesia (UI) said, “The support from friends, lecturers and family is overwhelming. We hope we can win for them.” With their prototype vehicle Garuda Kesavha Evolution, he is confident that his team could reach 1000 km per litre of gasoline.

Gerry has been selected to join SEM Asia UI team after going through series of strict selection processes from technical knowledge test to English speaking competence run by his senior colleagues. “I am very lucky to be part of this Asia big event. Our seniors who were in the SEM Asia event last year shared a lot of inspiring stories about SEM Asia last year which underlined that SEM is a truly an educational platform which one should be proud to be part of. Then here I am....”

Witantyo, senior lecturer at Mechanical Engineering and SEM ITS students’ coordinator at SEM Asia 2010 and 2011 commented, “Shell Eco-marathon is a fantastic learning curve for everybody, for us as teachers and the students. Besides being a great academic and technical challenge, the event helps foster values like teamwork among students. Preparing and racing a winning entry requires good organization and a strong spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility among all team members.”

At SEM Asia 2010, Indonesia teams showed remarkable achievement. the ITS Sapu Angin 2 vehicle achieved 237.6 kilometres per litre , to take home the first prize in the Urban Concept Combustion category. It surpassed the record set by the winning team of the same category at SEM America held in Houston, Texas US 2010 which was 182 km/litre. The Sapu Angin 2 team was also awarded the Urban Gasoline Fuel Award. Meanwhile, Yellow Makara team and Zamrud Khatulistiwa Team from University Indonesia got the second and third prize in the same Urban Concept Combustion category. They were amongst the 5 teams out of the 15 teams who met the rigorous technical inspections and safety standards in this category, enabling them to compete. The Exia team from ITB took home the People’s Choice Award as the most popular team with more than 65.000 votes.

The SEM Asia 2011 will be participated by 121 teams from 14 countries, while last year it was participated by 81 teams from 10 countries. This significant increase of participants reflects the growing enthusiasm of students to take up the challenge. Indonesia will send 10 teams from UI, ITB, UGM, ITS and Polnep who will gather in Jakarta for a centralized launch on 14 May at Parkir Selatan, Senayan Jakarta.

Futurism meets urban reality

Shell Eco-marathon has been brought to Asia in 2010 after it has successfully been running in Europe since 1985 and the United States since 2007. This allows young Asian talents to take up a longstanding challenge from Shell: design, build and drive a vehicle that can travel the furthest distance on the least amount of fuel and lowest possible C02 emissions.

At this annual event, teams can participate in either the Prototype or UrbanConcept categories. For the Prototype category, teams entered futuristic prototypes – streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction.

For the Urban Concept category, teams entered more "roadworthy" fuel-efficient vehicles. Aimed at meeting the real-life needs of drivers, these vehicles are closer in appearance to the cars seen on roads today. Both categories embrace a wide variety of fuel types, from fuels such as diesel and petrol to alternative fuels like ethanol, gas-to-liquid (GTL), hydrogen, solar energy, and biofuels. As long as teams adhere to safety rules, vehicle design is limited only by students’ imagination.

Among 10 Indonesia teams that participate in SEM Asia 2011, only UEV EVO1 team from ITB chooses etanol. “Our choice of using alternative fuel - 100% etanol, our light design using 100% carbon fibre and most importantly, our determination, are our competitive edge over the other schools,” said Muhammad Yusuf Ginanjar the team leader of UEV EVO1 from ITB.

Their prototype vehicle Rakata, is an amalgamation of the ITB SEM 2010 vehicles Exia and Rajawali. Yusuf targets Rakata to reach 600 km per litre. The car has been completed and the team just needs to practice slalom and test the braking system. Yusuf is not new to SEM Asia. Although he was not the core team of SEM ITB, he attended the SEM Asia 2010 to support his mates. “We’ve learned so much from SEM last year that we can’t wait to come back this year. “

Further information on the Shell Eco-marathon can be found at: www.shell.com/ecomarathon/asia

For enquiries, photos and interview, please contact:

Sri Wahyu Endah
Media Relations Manager
PT Shell Indonesia

Phone: +62 21 7592 4700
Fax: +62 21 7592 4679
www.shell.com/indonesia

About Shell Eco-marathon (SEM)

Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) is a competition for students to build a vehicle capable of travelling the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. SEM has been started in Europe since 1985 and in United States since 2007. Meanwhile, for Asia it was only held in 2010 at Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Objectives of Shell Eco-marathon (SEM)

  • Provide support to education, foster innovations, to improve maintenance and development of technology especially for greater energy efficiency.
  • Inspire others to have different way of thinking about energy and provide basis to create practical solutions in facing the future energy challenges.
  • Bring together academics, decision makers, expert on energy efficiency and expert of environmental affairs as well as university students with passions for thinking and to be creative on how to get larger energy and releasing the least amount of CO2.
  • Shows the commitment of Shell to directly answer the future energy challenges in a more responsible manner.

Reason for Shell Eco-marathon in Asia

  • Asia is ready to embrace the future energy challenges together with other university students from Europe and United States of America. 
  • Asian students have tremendous capability and talents hence by holding SEM in Asia we hereby give opportunity for more students’ teams in this region to participate.

Fuel used by Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) vehicles

The participants may choose one of the following fuels for their vehicles:

  • Shell Unleaded 95 (EU) / Shell Plus 89 (US)
  • Shell Diesel
  • Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
  • Shell Gas To Liquid (100% GTL)
  • Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (100% FAME)
  • Ethanol E100 (100% Ethanol)
  • Hydrogen
  • Solar
  • Plug-in electricity

Participants from Indonesia

  • ITS: Sapu Angin 3 (prototype), Sapu Angin 4 (Urban) and Sapu Angin 5 (urban)
  • UI: Garuda Kesavha Evolution (prototype) and Kalabia (urban)
  • ITB: Rakata (prototype) and Cikal (urban)
  • Politeknik Negeri Pontianak: Polnep (prototype)
  • UGM: Semar Urban (Urban) and Semar Prototype(Prototype)